Not All Was Lost

"All we needed was a defensive stop, and we couldn't get it. That was disheartening," Maryland Coach Ralph Friedgen said of his team's defensive performance. (By Jonathan Newton -- The Washington Po St)

Hours after Virginia Tech and Florida State had played much less important games, two days after Miami finished .500, two teams few imagined would still have shots at the Orange Bowl dragged each other's defenses around College Park for more than three hours.

Wake Forest-Maryland, for the ACC Atlantic Division title? Who would have figured that in September? Two programs usually fighting for a sixth victory in their last regular season game entered last night's game astonishingly BCS eligible.

Essentially, Rudy squared off against Vince Papale, Mark Wahlberg's "Invincible" character -- with one scholarship remaining for the most resilient walk-on.

And as Maryland's dream of an ACC title died hard on the Byrd Stadium grass, 38-24, at least the Terrapins know they were done in by a program as hungry to taste the big time as themselves.

Unable to stop Wake Forest's running game all night and especially at the end, Maryland ran into a mirror image of itself. In a telling sign of this college football season, the teams gave a far more entertaining performance than Florida and Florida State earlier in the day. But with the ACC title game a week away in Jacksonville, Fla., in the game that mattered most, Wake Forest was the one creating the turnovers, the team with the unspectacular but efficient quarterback, the team with the offensive innovations -- the double-reverses, the end-around runs. Wake Forest was the beneficiary of the plays that could have gone either way.

It must have been maddening for Maryland. The Demon Deacons basically out-Terped the Terps. Or Maryland just wasn't Wake enough.

"They predicted us to be at the bottom of the conference," said an ebullient Josh Gattis, the Wake Forest senior free safety. "Hard work, determination, guys stepping up to make key plays and having faith in our teammates led us to victory."

In other words, all the things that led Maryland to a previously unbeaten mark at home and riveting road wins over Clemson and Virginia. All the things the Terps were and more.

The game had that Louisville-West Virginia shootout quality to it; last team with the ball wins. Both defenses signed a nonaggression pact, giving up a combined 797 yards.

Maryland's run defense was a sieve. The Terps had no containment on the outside and were beaten so badly in that facet of the game they almost reverted back to the team that was strung out by West Virginia in September. Its ACC title hopes were looking bleak if not finished until Sam Hollenbach began to rifle the ball downfield and Keon Lattimore refused to be denied when he ran with the ball.

Hollenbach was very shaky early. On Senior Night, the Maryland quarterback had the confidence of a kid who lost his parents at the Tysons Galleria. He had three interceptions by halftime, and when he wasn't throwing it to the other team, he was overthrowing his receivers. But there he was, play-action left, rolling out, finding Isaiah Williams on a five-yard score in the corner of the end zone with 12 minutes 54 seconds left in the game. He set it up with a 48-yard strike to Williams, who caught the pass falling down despite defensive interference.

That cut Wake Forest's margin to a touchdown and seemed to portend the return to the Terps' 2006 theme: Lull the bad guys into believing they're superior -- give up yards, points and the ball -- before finding a way to shockingly pull another one out. But Wake Forest had played that game, too, finding ways to win big games their predecessors always lost. Until one day the Demon Deacons woke up and were in control of their ACC destiny. They ground out yards and moved straight downfield against Maryland's defense, scoring to put the game away on fourth and inches from the goal line.

Maryland Coach Ralph Friedgen had spoken often during his team's trials, always mentioning that the Terps' goals were still alive. Many of them died with that touchdown run. Not all the resolve of Hollenbach, Lattimore or their teammates could stop Wake Forest's offensive onslaught.

"Wake took it to us, especially in the second half," Friedgen said of the Demon Deacons' 196 rushing yards after intermission. "All we needed was a defensive stop, and we couldn't get it. That was disheartening."

Still, how do you hammer a team that no one thought would win six games, let alone eight? How do you knock the Maryland Terrapins for an electrifying regular season replete with last-second victories and big plays?

Big picture: 7-5 was the best any realistic alumnus could have hoped for from this crew, so anything after eight wins was gravy. Even the message-board zealots, who fired off knee-jerk screeds wanting Friedgen out at halftime of the Virginia game (before Maryland overcame a 20-0 deficit to reverse its season), have to look at 8-4 as a successful season.

So here's how it will most likely break down: the Chick-fil-A Bowl will take Virginia Tech. Clemson, even though the Tigers lost to South Carolina yesterday, will probably go to the Gator in Jacksonville. Hey, Clemson travels well. That leaves Maryland with either the Music City Bowl in Nashville or the Meineke Car Care in Charlotte, and Charlotte looks more like a lock than anything.

Navy has committed to that game, and a Maryland-Navy matchup would be very attractive regionally.

On a night when Cinderella basically beat Snow White to the waiting coach, the runner-up ended up in the Muffler Bowl, where it should still enjoy the ball.